Welcome to the New World
by daedricgurl
Summary: Many years into the future is a new wave of exploration. With light speed travel, the most adept teams of soldiers explore the vast unknown sea of blackness for new life. When a Russian team finds sentient life, will they have to run or fight? And if survival is granted them, what will they do with this new information? Sell the species to extinction? But they are so beautiful...
1. Chapter 1

"Dizzy?"

On a flat horizontal computer terminal, a projection beamed up, the light molding into the shape of a simple blue orb. It was a rolling, boiling mass in appearance, twitching and changing shape with every word it ever spoke. This object was called Dizzy, the name it had decided to chose, its voice sounded cynical, and the voice always taunting and teasing. Only those with a sick sense of humor, or a lot of patience were able to really put up with it.

_"Hello Yuriy."_

"How are our oxygen levels?"

_"Perfectly fine, really. I don't know why you're worrying about it; there is a big green and blue planet right below you."_

"We have no idea what's down there."

_"Actually…" _If it had a humanoid appearance, the way it lilted its voice would have matched a smirk most likely. _"We've gone over this before Yuriy." _The voice changed to that of a mother talking to a young child. _"There are several species below; aqua, air, and terrestrial. Hundreds of kilometers of foliage. Specifically forests." _

"Can you show me?"

The rotating ball in the screen glitched out of existence, the projected screen flicking into a sort of camera mode that panned over the tops of lush green canopy. Everywhere there were giant trees, trees bigger than what was ever known on his home planet; Earth. But much else from within those trees couldn't be seen, and no wildlife was seen soaring above the trees. The terminal panned to what Tala assumed was the ocean of this planet; it was a clean blue green, shimmering under this planets sun, that star keeping it constantly warm. The computer was able to zoom in closer to the water as it raced the image across the terminal. In the clear surface of the water, sleek, silvery blue porpoise like creatures were dashing below. Their noses were exceedingly long, serrated on both sides like a saw, their bodes undulating rapidly as they swam after a school of yellow and green medium sized fish, their resemblance to tuna was uncanny, though their fins were longer and sharper, and when the fish breached the surface, seemed to skim above the water as though easily flying. And then a porpoise would jump from the water, give a mighty shake of its head and lash the fish to ribbons, flopping down on its pieced up prey and quickly snapping it up.

"They don't look too terribly different from the sea creatures on earth."

_"You're right, but I sense greater creatures far below where my cameras can't see, when you breach the planet, skim the ocean and drop one of my wireless mechanical marbles in it." _

"Roger. How's Ivan and his team doing by the way?"

Suddenly a screen flashed from what had been panning multiple views of the inactive forest and then of the ocean and pod of porpoise they'd found-to a blank shuttle compartment. It wasn't as spacious as his own, but the team it housed was generally smaller of stature, and smaller of crew. A face suddenly popped into view, breathless and red cheeked.

"Ivan, get your big nose out of the lens, I can't see a thing."

The one called Ivan stepped back, ruffling his hair and scratching his nose in embarrassment. "I came as soon as Dizzy called." Yuriy nodded on his side, looking around the terminal on Ian's side. "Well? Status update?" Ivan jumped, stumbled over some words before able to spit everything out. "Upon landing we ran into a multitude of non-sentient species. Some aggressive and others not. We have taken samples from the ones that we can get close to, the aggressive ones we have tracked and simply picked up left behind DNA. We are trying to keep a constant feed of information streaming into Dizzy. _"A lot of the feed I'm getting feels like simply overgrown hampsters." _Ivan chuckled and nodded, "Honestly, that's what a lot of these creatures are looking like."

Yuriy nodded, expecting an online document to be uploaded once Ivan compiled the complete list of species on the planet, or as complete of one he could get. "Good," Yuriy nods, "keep it up, and watch your selves. Don't get too comfortable with the masses there. If it's anything like earth, they could turn at the drop of a needle. Watch your back." Ivan smiles balefully, nodding. "You too, Captain." The redhead only nodded and manually clicked the screen closed; Dizzy came back, its rotund shape orbiting in view again.

_"So are you finally going enter and do /your/ job now?"_

"Yes, I'm going to suit up with the rest of my team and then we will land. Prepare the ship and list to me pertinent details about the planet."

The many cabins of the ship very large as it had to be both fast when fleeing other ships (if any were ever encountered) but convenient for housing a small family sized crew. The ship was named the Blitzkrieg. While at light speed travel for short distances at a time, it also had a small arsenal of powerful weapons-allowing its crew to be confident in their survivability.

Yuriy entered one of the cabins that was obviously the locker room. That was where the rest of his crew was. Sergei, the tall heavy infantry man was the brute squad, stoic face, all brawn but not too terribly stupid. He always stood fast, strong and sturdy when faced with opposition. Geared up in a protective suit of white, orange and blue. Layered atop it was his thick protective armor. His blond hair mused and sticking to his forehead. Helmet in his lap as he checks all of its components for safety. He looks up when Yuriy entered and gives a curt nod of respect to his captain. Sergei was his most loyal as far as Yuriy was concerned.

Boris, prematurely grayed from the Siberian conditions of his home country on his home planet of earth. He was also donned in the white, orange and blue jump suit. Helmet under his arm, resting against his hip as he stood facing another of the members, having been talking to him. Boris was medium infantry, also part of the brute squad if only because he was completely merciless. His face constantly curled in a condescending expression, but it fell to a more confident smirk when he saw Yuriy.

That was when the last of their crew stood up. Two toned, wild haired Kai. Fiery eyes, all cold shoulder and icy words. His jump suit was only partially on; the belt was what held the lower half on while the rest hung down along his legs. He was a reserve special operative. Similar to Yuriy, both with roguish capabilities and secretive, spy-esque training. Kai was not nearly as loyal to Yuriy as the other crew was; he was a loner by nature. However these men he got along with solely because he'd been raised with them on a Russian satellite for the pure purpose of space exploration and if needed-war. If Yuriy was not around for orders, they would go to Kai as Kai knew best what Yuriy might want.

Their red haired captain joined them, striding to his locker so that he could get his suit.

"Put your chip in, Dizzy has shit to say." He commands them all while beginning to suit up. His soldiers obey him, as soon as all of their chips are locked into their ears—Dizzy begins to speak.

_"Big, Blue. What more could you want? Never mind that it's at a consistent 32C to 39C, I wont even get into the humidity index, you'll just have to feel it for yourself. Aside from the temperatures of this area, it's mostly mountainous, hot, wet, and foresty. It's absolutely teeming with life. Omnivorous, Carnivorous, and Herbivorous."_

There is a click somewhere in her speech as Boris grabs a Trench gun and begins to load in its individual rounds.

_ "There is plenty of oxygen and a considerably lower amount of pollutants, metals, and harmful gasses in their water, land, and air. My guess is due to the fact there is zero modernization. Of course, compared to you, that is. While you orbited I was able to pick up minute signs of humanoid habitation." _This grabbed their attention, all of them looked up sharply from the weapons they were readying to stare at each other. _"That's right boys, big bad aliens. But remember, you are the ones with technology they've never seen before. You're the ones with a foreign language. /You/ are the ones who look and act different. Who are the real aliens anymore?" _

After that she went completely silent and they knew they wouldn't be hearing anything more from her. Her silence meant they better well make clear of the species that lived on this world, and treat it carefully. They didn't want to think of an existence where the smartest being they've ever met was no longer on their side.

Kai hefted a giant sniper rifle and snapped it onto his back and then pulled a FAMAS off of the rack. Then he strapped belts of rounds for all of his guns to his hips and thighs as a belt. Yuriy had seized a FAMAS, but also the ever reliable AR-15 and a small Ray gun. It was one of their more technologically advanced guns, medium sized pistol in shape, it had six rounds per charge, each 'round' was a beam that sustained for five seconds. It shot at incinerating heat. It's cool down period was a few minutes though, and that made it extremely unreliable at times. Sergei had a 'mountable', which he could also have strapped to his body; he was as sturdy as a stone wall and had two disks with its hundreds of bullets in each, he was the only one capable of handling the powerhouse. On his back was an AK-103 along side its accessory of a grenade launcher.

One would think that in this day an age, there would be a whole arsenal of laser capable weapons, but truth is, the majority of those had to be designed too large for singular human usage and were vastly made for air craft, space crafts and water crafts. And the weapons of so long ago had never lost their reliability, armor piercing, incendiary bullets, exploding bullets. Evolution wasn't much needed for weapons.

There had been a small bump during their dress down, Dizzy had guided the ship to a clearing and landed it for them. It was so smooth of a job they hadn't noticed they were even that close to the planet.

Comfortably decked in armor and weapon, Yuriy looked each of them over before nodding. "Let's head out." Their tall, muscular bodies loped to the end of the hold they were in. Yuriy was reaching for a gas mask by the side of a large door, his team following his lead when a static voice screeched in their ear. _"There aren't any gasses in the air that human bodies cannot handle. Don't make yourselves look anymore inhuman and frightening." _They paused, and frustration crossed Boris's features, but still Yuriy's hand then shifted from the masks to pressing a button on the side of the ship, a door was lifted upwards, in length of ten feet across while a bridge was lowered the remaining few feet to the ground. They were assaulted with all kinds of sounds, smells, and sights. Everywhere was bright, green, and glistening. The sound of buzzing from miniscule bugs, the squeak of crickets, and hum of lightening fast birds. The world smelled wet like fresh fallen rain, sweet with nectar from fruits and plants, spicy with ground rot and the scent of certain flowering plants. And all about them, everything simply towered like they had never witnessed before. The trees were all hundreds of feet thick and round, hundreds of feet tall, and still some were taller. Flowers which curled on vines in bright reds and violets seemed as large as their torso's. Leaves from drooping ferns as big as their heads. Sharp branches jutted out from every trunk of the tree at all kinds of height's, as they left the bridge of the ship to let it close, they had to duck under some hanging dead branches to get further into the forest. They watched in fascination, though with caution and raised guns as they suddenly were under inspection by three hummingbird like creatures; their beaks were long and pointed, their eyes black and beady, and their silky feathers glistening greener than the plants around them to help them blend in. They were half the size of the humans, and Yuriy had the impression these were some of the smaller species of life on this planet. The fan of wind from these gloriously bright birds pressed against them, the hum from their wings made their hearts flutter. On impulse Boris reached out to touch one, but suddenly their calm exploration of the humans turned frantic, they fluttered all around them before zipping off in the opposite direction they had come from, they had seemed scared to the troops. "Boris!" Yuriy had hissed at him, and the grey haired had hung his head. His affinity and love of birds had gotten the better of him. But it wasn't too long after the humming birds had fled that they would find out Boris hadn't been the reason of their fright. A low buzzing can be heard in the distance, it resonates through the forest, and almost seems to be coming from all around them as it grows closer. The sound is annoying, almost painful to the ears, and once more they take up arms. Sergei checks the straps of his mountable before leveling the gun at hip level and making sure the safety is off. Kai exchanges for his Snipe, and Yuriy seems comfortable with his AR. As soon as they've all shouldered their guns, from the bush gushes a stream of mosquito's much larger than life. Their abdomens are longer than a man, their heads the size of boulders, and their proboscis long and thick and sharply edged. They were a greasy, wiry black haired gangly legged monster. And the team wasted no time in gunning them down. Short gusts from the mountable spattered them in the doubles against the trees and ground. While Kai kneels behind the team, beheading them with a swift shot, quickly and efficiently. The short, loud crack of the Trench gun could be heard, Boris laughing as he guns down giant bug after bug with one effective shot each. The round splitting on fire and tearing the bugs apart on impact. Yuriy at his back, firing with much more reserve, and a much more determined and serious face. The bugs didn't let up until the last of their guts were hanging from the plants. Kai surreptitiously sweeps part of a shelled thorax and its hanging guts off of his shoulder. "Don't worry Kai, there's nothing in your hair." Boris sneers, his way of showing his good mood at being able to kill. Kai only rolls his eyes and checks discreetly to make sure his war-pain didn't smear.

"_That was gruesome, I had no idea everything was so… fascinatingly huge."_

Kai rolls his eyes, rotates his scapula and shakes out his legs. "Thanks for the heads up Dizzy." He yawns sarcastically, turning towards Yuriy. "If all of your ammo is alright, let's penetrate deeper into the forest. We need to be more careful this time, and Dizzy!"

"_Yes Kai dear?"_

"Warn us if you see any blimps coming our way."

"_Awh, but that ruins the surprise. I have to keep you on your toes you know!"_

But they all knew she would tell them if there were targets headed their way, so with unspoken consent, Sergei took the lead, gun pointed forward as he crept as quietly as he could further away from his ship, and deeper into the forest, Boris at his back, Yuriy following and Kai holding up the rear.

They saw many things as they trekked over root and stone, black, naked, leather hide bat like creatures hanging from the branches on long thorned tails, with large, bright red eyes and pointed snouts. They saw a few more colorful birds, with scoop beaks, or curved straw like beaks. All plumage bright, colorful, elaborate. The dull colored birds they knew to be female, though they seemed a tad bit bigger than the males. At one time they saw a black mantis sitting prone on the trunk of a tree, it was twice Sergei's size, the body was angled towards the ground, so when it felt them coming near, it had to lift it's head up so that it may watch them pass. It left them alone, and it's shining, knife like forearms remained embedded in the tree.

"_This wildlife is amazing, they're so similar to things on earth, but appear vastly externally different. And-…"_ She went silent, this caused the sweating team to pause, suddenly concerned about the silence. "Dizzy?" Intones Yuriy with a bit of worry. "_Right in front, fast moving targets. About eight of them. They're big. Hot thermals. Large brain waves. Be careful, boys." _

They stop moving, muscles quivering, or they thought those were their muscles before they realized it was the environment around them. The bushes and vines and stones were all moving. A pounding sound reached their ears, the crunch of branches beneath feet; heavy panting reached their ears before with a roar from the trees broke muscled, bright tigers. The team of Russian soldiers staggered back as they were circled. Canines dipping from their jaws like sabers, their chests ensconced in protective elaborate metal, they were white furred with orange stripes, some had red stripes and yellow stripes, but one, the one at the lead, the biggest of them all, standing almost as high as a small house at the jaw-Was a black lion, billowing lavender mane. Its eyes an electrifying glowing hue similar to its mane. A rumbling growl came from its chest as it crouched. They saw their life flash before their eyes-thinking it was about to pounce; but it did not. Instead from its shoulder to its mighty paw slid a rather ethereal being. Tall, muscled leanly and glinting golden under the light filtered through the canopy. They all stared into slitted yellow eyes, before the head turned away from them, laying a clawed hand on the tigers forearm. Thick, black hair swayed against an obviously muscled back, shirtless but for the scars he wore proudly over his rippling body. Black trousers tapered at the knees, a red sash holding it up. Then it turned back towards them, raised its right arm which held a glinting spear and pointed it at them. The necklace of sharp teeth and stone beads around his neck rattled at the action, but his arm did not tremble in the slightest as he simply held it there. The humanoid creature didn't even try and speak, knowing there was no way they could communicate. So instead, this creature opened its mouth to show off sharp canines and hissed, his body practically bristling as he glared with thin pupils down the barrel of the guns. Body language was the best way of communication after all. He and his troop had heard the guns, the frightening crack of them like ominous thunder. Invaders, invaders that had to be destroyed and stopped before reaching the rest of their kind!


	2. Chapter 2

The twisting sound of a sweating palm tightening on the cool metal of a gun alerts Yuriy to Boris's shifting grip. He was getting ready; the man had no qualms shooting these creatures down. The action, though audible to Yuriy due to proximity was also apparently audible to their partners in stand off. They shifted, seemed to bound forward a step or two and their feline mounts opened large jaws in rumbling growls and displayed dripping saber canines. 'How…?'

Dizzy queues into his ear, he hadn't realized he'd moved his tongue to the thought. Dizzy answers very quietly to make sure that they can't hear. Not that they would know what was being said; _'Hypersensitivity? Think of them as a human version of those fluffy kitty cats they galloped in on.' _Then silence in his ears for a moment before speaking into the whole squads ears. _'Don't blink now; their muscles are coiling to pounce.'_ And no sooner had that been spoken into their ears, they were literally pounced on in the multiple of directions that they were surrounded by. Boris was the fasted to react to the attack, having readied himself only moments before, one round of his gun felled one of the aliens, the multi round shot having made useless its arms and legs by tearing through it's shoulders and thighs. It writhed and keened on the ground—the pain of the weapons these aliens had brought was like nothing it had ever experienced before. Cold, penetrating, as the round remained imbedded and agitated with every movement. His comrades trembled at the sounds but found it too late to retreat and help him for now as they were upon the invaders. Making useless their guns as best as they could in the melee. The ebony haired and scarred leader threw the spear at him, and Yuriy had just enough time to dodge to the side—leaving no more time for another dodge as he was lunged for with a claw shortly after, Yuriy knocked the hand aside with a whip of his gun only to find the palm of a hand jutting against the upper part of his sternum, fingers folded inwards to dig claws almost into his jugular, he'd managed to pull his head back in time while jerking himself backwards and onto the ground, the action dragged the nails down his chest and they cut easily through his uniform. Upon hitting the ground, he rolled backwards, feet over head and was back standing again. Crouched low and arms outstretched to grapple with anything close enough. The apparent leader was converging on him again, circling each other; in the background he could hear the paws of the big cats as the creatures circled and prevented any fleeing. Yuriy had no time to check on the status of his teammates as he was too busy defending his own life, but he trusted in their training and their skills to hold off these creatures for as long as possible.

Kai had long since lost his gun, it had been kicked out of his hand-and really he seemed just fine with that. His face stoic as he turned on his toes, making to do a roundhouse kick to the nearest alien-he found his ankle caught though, and was twisted off the ground, flung a few feet away by the momentum the alien had managed. Golden eyes flashed at him, and fangs peeked out in a smirk as it stalked closer to the felled human. When the distance was closed, Kai sprung from the ground, his knees jacked up to his chest while his hands pushed off the ground from his either side of his head. Springing feet first up into the air when he lunged his feet upwards with the simultaneous push. A twist of his body enabled him to hit his opponent in the chest who went down while Kai caught his balance on the almost crushed chest. He looked up just as another sprinted towards him with the most inhuman speed he had ever seen; he barely had enough time to sleight his feet and dodge to the side.

The first alien that had run at Boris was snagged by the arm when the man stepped from out of the way. It had twisted as soon as he made the action and almost caught him in return, but with momentum on Boris's side, he was able to swing the alien out, twisting in a circle and still holding to it, he released and let it crash into one of its kin with a crack of their heads. They fell limply to the ground, on turning back around to confront the feet he heard running towards him, one of them managed to latch onto his back, feeling a claw sink into his side, he let out rough grunt. Warm blood tickling the flesh and getting stuck within the suit he wore. Reaching back to grab its hair with both hands and yanking with all his muscle power, the claws tore through his skin, but without caring as he practically pulled it over his hand and slammed it down onto the ground.

When flinging his head to the side to throw sweat from his face, he spotted Sergei, four of the creatures clinging to him, the straps of his mountable had been ripped asunder under their claws and now they clung to his flesh. A few crawled away from him with dark bruises on their naked backs or thighs from his heavy punches.

"No, NO!" They all heard the shout from Yuriy, they couldn't help but pause to look in his direction as they saw him go down. Both he and the leader of this pack hitting the ground... With the leader atop his back, claws in his wild flaming hair to push his face into the sticks and dirt, the other large clawed hand had hooked into his suit, skin and hands to pin them so high above his back his hands were practically between his shoulder blades. This pause was just what the creatures needed to jump the rest of the invaders. As Kai ran forward to help Yuriy, one jumped on his back and pushed him to the ground. He found a sharp edged point at his throat and a claw in his hair. His hands fisted the dirt, fiery eyes on his captain, grunting and muscles straining in disbelief. This could _not_ be happening. With both their captain and vice caught, Boris couldn't help but stutter in his movements, he found himself seized by the neck and a kick to the back of his knees which brought him down, a knife pointed at his throat, but still he reached forward towards Yuriy; knowing it was in vain. Sergei held his hands up when he found himself encircled by several gleaming spear tips. He knew better than to go on when the rest of his brothers had been captured, and with his captain's life at stake, he couldn't bring himself to risk endangering his life anymore than it was already in.

The scarred leader released Yuriy's hair but only so he could pull a small knife out from a leather sheath at his waist which had somehow remained unnoticed. He raised it high above his head, the tip poised to strike through Yuriy's back into his vitals. It was otherwise aimed at his heart. Boris screamed, "No! Yuriy, no!"

His shout was suddenly overlapped by a roar unlike the ones they'd heard previously from these other cats, from the shadows sprung a tiger larger than any of the others that circled them, larger even than the midnight black lion. The black lion rose to greet it though, they met mid air in the jump, but the lion crumpled under the weight of the tiger and was pinned beneath its great weight. It bounded off the limp lion and right to the leader and Yuriy, the scarred alien looked up with blazing eyes as the tiger swiped at him with its large paw, the leader absorbed most of the damage the hit would have caused by jumping away. The swipe sending him flinging even farther, he hit a tree hard and collapsed to the ground-however he didn't stay down; he slowly managed to climb unsteadily to his feet. The team of Russians took in this new cat, brilliantly light, with stripes like green electrifying lightening. Its eyes held more intelligence than those from around it as it stared at Yuriy. Mouth open, tongue peeking out as it panted. It crouched down as its head swiveled back to watch the scarred alien again. Movement atop its back alerted them to its rider, and from its shoulder slid a lithe form. The distance between the cats back and the ground seemed nothing to this new alien as it landed with slightly bent knees. Even in its prevalent anger, they had seen no greater beauty before. It moved with the graceful slink of a lynx on silent bare feet which shuffled not so much as a leaf or stick. The other cats seemed to cower under the tiger he had brought and like wise the aliens ducked their heads under his weighty, infuriated golden gaze. From his left hand he held a long, shimmering leg-which was recognized as one of the legs of the mosquitoes that was encountered previously by the Russian's. This new comer who had put their captors to shame with simply his presence seemed to rub it in when he tossed the leg at the scarred alien who only eyed with disdain where it laid on the ground. And then, turning his back on him, he eyed the rest of the group, remained silent and his lips remained down turned. Finally he pointed at the leg he'd dragged before them all, and spoke in a purring, sultry, low alto at his own kind. The words he seemed to speak were oddly tonal, and Boris couldn't help but whisper a crack, "I _knew_ the damn Chinese weren't human." He was ignored however, wisely so. Though Dizzy had enjoyed the wisecrack.

"_I can hear all the tones used in the Cantonese variation of the Chinese language, but after that, further pronunciation is not similar. I will try and decipher as much as I can, however seeing something written would make it a lot easier, and a lot quicker."_

This long haired beauty had shamed his kind quickly, and they responded graciously by groveling on the ground in full, submissive bows. Such was the action that the ones that had been holding the Russians down had released them-though they were slow and cautious to get back up. So, bound hair swaying side to side, the beauty approached Yuriy and looked down at him with such a crooked smile, that a white tooth had caught on his lower lip and glinted in the light just a bit. Yuriy glanced at it, and then to warm, playful golden eyes. This alien wiped both hands on the front of his tunic, dirt smearing on the white of the linen on his thighs where the tunic hung past-leaving the gold sash unmarred around his narrow hips. His hands clean, he held one out, palm upright to Yuriy. The Russian watched the hand, saw the smooth edged sharpness of the claws, the creases in the golden skin of his knuckles; and then he took the hand- putting his hand atop that outstretched palm and allowed their hands to grip each other fiercely. Yuriy felt strength in that grip; he knew he was barely scratching the surface of just how fierce these warriors were. He sensed then that this one was the true 'alpha' of this pack, and for good reason. There was kindness in his face, playfulness in his eyes. Strength and wisdom in his coy smile and strong hand. Yuriy did not doubt he had courage and wit as well. The creature helped him to his feet, and then put his other hand atop Yuriy's, nodding singularly at him before releasing him. He went as far as to turn his back on the redhead, showing all that he did not feel these men to be a threat. He approached Kai next on airy footsteps, Kai wanted to check to see if the aliens feet were even touching the ground, but his eyes were stuck on the golden ones-too caught to see if he glided or not. He had risen part way on his knees when Yuriy had been helped up, but had forgotten to finish the rest of the action when he found the ethereal creature locked on his own location. It helped him up as well and looked into his eyes more fiercely than he had at Yuriy; and then it spoke briefly. Its voice dipped low as it spoke, and the ending consonant was but a purr in the back of its throat.

"_I'm not sure, but I think he said he likes your eyes. Weird." _

But just as quickly as he'd helped Kai, he'd turned to Boris and Sergei, Boris merely stood there returning the creatures smirk, while Sergei drew its attention with a blunt observation. "You're beautiful…" He couldn't help but say, and the alien tilted it's head, touched a clawed finger to it's pointed ear in contemplation-obviously not understanding; but figuring nothing bad was said, so released on Sergei a sharp toothed, happy grin which creased the corners of his eyes and showed off many sparkling sharp teeth. They all decided after this endearing expression that they liked this particular creature, and Sergei in particular held no ill feelings about the encounter. He saw in the way the creature nodded its head at them that this was all a misunderstanding.

They watched the obsidian haired glide back to the giant tiger and rest a tanned hand on his forelimb before looking over his shoulder at them and beckoning with a slight flick of his head. Yuriy cautiously goes to him, weary as the tiger sets a momentary gaze on him before it draws up to its full height and slowly turns away to pad with very slow, measured steps. They scramble to attach their misplaced guns to their respective holsters, their now turned guide follows at a brisk pace to keep up with the tiger, and the four Russians fall in near to him shortly after. Noticing that all around them the former attackers took up mounts, or followed behind on foot-staring. They noticed that the midnight lion and its rider were off to the side of the group with the gun-injured alien slung over it's back behind him, and watching them closely. Kai was watching him in return from the corner of his eyes until he felt a nail tap gently at his wrist. His gaze whips to the playful grin of the alien that had saved them all. So he takes stock of him instead. His hair shined almost blue in certain angles of light, his skin a glowing, warm tan, face angular, his eyes a brilliant, sunny gold and slanted almond shaped. His hair, Kai imagined would go to his ankles if it wasn't locked away in such a wrap. The tips of his ears were drawn up to a point. Kai didn't have to look at the feet to know those two sported claws similar to those on his hands. Over all, the creature was shorter than him; he knew there was nothing but sinewy muscle beneath the white tunic and trouser that tapered to his ankles. He received only a wry little smile in return for his assessment, and he knew a similar observation had been made.

It wasn't long until they reached their destination, and it was with awe that Yuriy looked upon their settlement. The inhabitants there looked at them with similar thoughts and expressions. The band that had followed behind them then trotted pass and into the village in dispersal, some of them shouting in that tonal language and pointing back at them. The story the obsidianed had told them was that of the demise of the mosquitoes, and now the pack was telling the village. There was momentary rejoicing, and the soldiers found themselves swarmed quickly, their guide standing amongst them, laughing and smiling at them as they were shot questions in the foreign language. He was amused at their expense.

The silence that came after all the excitement was sudden, the crowd falling dead quiet and then parting quickly. There was a certain buzz of electricity in the air, that even the name ordained obsidianed fell silent, and turned to face the ominous feeling. Within the part created from the aliens was walking a singular of their kind, bent, wrinkled, leaning against the side of an over grown bobcat, the tufts of hair on his cheeks hung, it's whiskers drooped, but it's ears remain alert, and it's one working eye ever watchful, the other was closed shut by a wound that had scarred it over. Its pelt was thick and grey. Their obsidian guide remained in front of them, facing the village elder, but he seemed relaxed, if not more serious. Behind the wised alien was the scarred alien from before, his head bowed. There was brief speech between the elder and the obsidian, before the obsidian went to the scarred leader and laid a hand on his shoulder in forgiveness, the relief was palpable in the scarred creature's posture.

When the elder raised his hand, he gained their attention again; setting a crooked finger pointing at the Russian's. There was confusion before Dizzy helped. _"Name."_

"Yuriy." He quickly intones while pointing to himself, "Kai," when he points to Kai, "Sergei, Boris." He names each member respectively. The elder nods in satisfaction, when they look at the obsidianed, they see his lips moving quickly and silently over their names, trying to figure them out, his brows are furrowed. Upon noticing he's being watched, he jolts and blushes, grinning sheepishly at them all. A clawed finger points to the scarred, "Rai," then to himself, "Rei…" It's such an airy purr, the way these aliens talked were simply too damn sultry. Not just the speech patterns were off, but Boris had picked up on an odd scent, however he couldn't identify it due to the wet fur scent the big cats lugged around, several remained very close still, including Rei's tiger. Boris could tell the disguised scent wasn't unpleasant however, just made the tip of his tongue itch oddly.

An exaggerated hand motion from Rei meant for them to follow, and they walked with the elder to the center of the village where they discovered a huge pit fire, a huge rack of ribs roasting over them, from their size it was easy to tell that whatever the meat belonged to was bigger than the cats. It was only with the help of the big cats that they were able to turn the spit when it was needed. The scent of the cooking meat further covered the smell that Boris had been trying to pick up on.

They were being invited to eat, and though cautious and unsure about customs, they knew better then to reject the offer. They were paraded about the 'party', introduced to many foods and drinks, Boris's favorite was an alcohol made from a fruit. The taste and consistency was like that of mango juice, with a hint of apple to it. It was more refreshing and invigorating than cloying and drowsy inducing like alcohol. Rei had simply called it 'Gou-na.' The meat he had called, "Ju-ro." He only smiled sweetly at them when they mucked up the tones upon repetition. The meat had been very gamey tasting and lean. But it was sweet when slathered with a butter they had brought out, it held the tang of garlic and onion, and it softened the meat to a savory, melting, molten mess in their mouths. Boris mentioned wanted to hunt with the aliens just so he could see what kind of beast this was. "It doesn't taste like a carnivorous animal." He had voiced, "There has to be a reason their cats are so fiercely huge. Not just because of the pest problem." Sergei had agreed. "Before we make any plans, we need to get back to base and send a report back to earth." Yuriy interrupted, icy eyes flicked from the sky which was darkening, back to the clearing they were in, watching as Rei picked up a reed flute and began to blow an airy, light tune while swaying to it. They were loath to leave though, at least Sergei certainly was, after his eating contest with a huge creature that went by the name Gaou, he wanted to stay and continue wreaking havoc. But he followed Yuriy's lead-who stood as soon as he saw Rei lower the pipe. The alien seemed to dance over, breathless in his happiness. Yuriy pointed back in the direction they had come from, they were given a solemn nod. Rei gave a piercing whistle, and his tiger stood from where it had been laying on the other side of the fire and padded over to them. Rei was meaning to be their escort back. It was a decision that made Yuriy uncomfortable, and was about to voice said discomfort until he felt a hand on his shoulder; upon looking over it and seeing crimson eyes-his lips thinned.

"He showed us theirs, I think we should show them ours—an action of good faith." Kai accented his wise words with a nod, and Yuriy responded similarly, gesturing for Rei to follow with a wave of his hand.

When walking, they went past the gut smattered clearing they had fought the bugs in, they passed the tree that the mantis had been watching them on-though it was now just a lone tree, and with the sun setting, the bats before had moved off for fruits to hunt down. It was a long ways to walk, but they made it before having to use any night-vision wear that might startle the humanoid and cat that paced with them, though they were worried their ship might. From a horizontal view it would be hidden by the giant trees in the clearing, but when making it into the just big enough clearing, the hard metal glinting ominously at them, and Rei of course stopped in his tracks. His fingers knotting into the fur of his tiger's foreleg. The gun-metal grey shimmered in the wan light, the wings that protruded from its sides sharp to cut the air and atmosphere, and to stimulate faster speeds when in zero gravity with its propulsion methods. The propellers imbedded within the middle of those wings excellent for hovering and lift off, were sharp and could shred anything that fell into them. The nose was pointed, and the tinted glass of its front window looked like glaring black eyes to the alien. It couldn't help but gasp while the hackles on his tiger rose, part of its lip rising as it growled from the corner of his mouth.

Sergei quickly went to assuage their fears; he gave an easy smile, and watched as slowly, Rei's shoulders went down some. The tiger kept a saber bared however, though it's deep rumble ceased. Holding his hand out to the ship, looking at Rei- "Home." It was the best he could come up with, and secretly, Yuriy and the rest agreed-how long had they spent on this singular ship? It was countless, space travel had destroyed any chances of returning to friends and family-not that they had any true friends and family to start with, however this wasn't the point.

Sergei then also unhooked a small remote from his belt and held it out to Rei, pointing to a rectangular button at the very top of the device. He ignored several other buttons that lay below it. After a moment of indecision, Rei put his forefinger on it. When nothing happened, a little bit more urging from Sergei had him pushing the button a little harder and with more results. With a click, and then a quiet whirring of gears, a door from beneath began to open, the landing gear of the ship propped it up six feet off the ground-so a small flight of metal stairs lowered. Rei was amazed, and it wasn't hard to tell-though he wasn't agreeable to going in and exploring this ship when it was just he and his tiger with several new creatures he just came into contact with today. But he had a feeling that in time they would grow into their village and become a part of his people. He was okay with this-and he knew that these new comers had much to offer, and he knew that his people had to learn what these men knew in order to survive.

He backed up, but he did so with a smile to show he wasn't scared, or fleeing, or thinking they had malicious intent. Just demonstrating he had seen enough, and that he needed to leave as well. He nodded his chin to them, raised a hand and let his grin grow to a toothy flash and glinting golden eyes. "Jien." He says his good bye, turns on his bare heels and dashes in a few short steps to his tiger-the creature lowers its head just as Rei vaults into the air at an inhuman height, he clutches onto the fur at the tigers shoulder before swinging nimbly onto its back. It raises its head, gives a very small shake and turns tail to dash with the resounding pounding of it's massive paws on the ground below.

The Russians had watched them leave in amazement, Yuriy smirking at the display before folding his hands behind his back and then mounting the stairs into their ship. Upon entrance, with Kai behind him who was already beginning to dismember his armor-Yuriy spoke into the hold of their ship, going to the front controls while Kai, Sergei, and Boris went to separate rooms or the changing bay for showers.

"Dizzy, would you mind writing a report on this one for us?"

"_Perhaps, how would you like it?"_

"Very brief and with little detail."

"_Huh, I understand."_ It processed everything in a matter of seconds, _"I've just sent it to Earth."_

"Thank you Dizzy." A fabricated chuckle was all he heard from the voice. He stifled a yawn and turned to join his comrades in arms.

_Planet CH-24462x_

_Successful landing. Multiple life forms viewed. Arial, terrestrial, marine all present. Mammals and insectoids spotted. On the look out for amphibians and reptiles. _

_Over-evolved life forms, Mammals appear ten times larger than on earth, the several insectoids appear one hundred times larger than on earth._

_Humanoids present. Capable of sentient thought. Demonstrated completely non-threatening behavior. Minor contact established. _

_Complicated language set. _

_Highly evolved Neanderthal in inner anatomy, and internal structures and instincts. _

_Non-threatening in appearance, human in physical structure and thought processes. _

_-Blitzkrieg crew analysis. _

_**Yuri Ivanov**_

_**Kai Hiwatari**_

_**Boris Kuznetsov**_

_**Sergei Petrov**_


End file.
